Too many cases are surfacing and animal control can't do anything unless there are visible signs of abuse. Visible abuse isnt always present. Sometimes the worst abuse is done mentally and under the guise of training. Even though there are certifications for trainers (CCPDT) people don't legally have to have those certifications to set up shop as a trainer. And the organizations giving those certifications don't police people who have earned them...The onus is on pet owners to do research before entrusting their pets to any trainer. WE MUST be able to stop bad trainers

This would be a fantastic way to celebrate the life of Betty White. And what better time to do it than for what would've been her 100th birthday?

January 6th was one year ago and yet America's Democracy is more vulnerable than ever. Many states are enacting laws to make voter suppression and a future coup more likely. Many more Americans are victims of conspiracy theories. The next several national elections will determine if democracy continues or is replaced by autocracy.

When the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Oil and Gas division put a moratorium on road spreading in 2018, conventional drillers turned to a different arm of the agency, the Bureau of Waste Management, to find a loophole that would allow them to keep spreading toxic, radioactive drilling wastewater on unpaved roads in PA. The loophole is called Coproduct Determination. Owners of any waste product can legally make determinations that their waste is essentially a product capable of performing the same function a commercially-available product performs. And then they can start using it. At no time are they required to tell the DEP. Should the DEP find out and request a copy of the determination report, the waste owner must provide a copy. In early 2021, for the first time since drillers started availing themselves of the loophole, the Bureau of Waste Management requested determination reports from 17 drillers. The Better Path Coalition requested copies of the reports and put together our own list of companies reporting road spreading in the DEP's Oil & Gas Waste Report. We came up with 29 companies. DEP provided copies of 8 reports that included one that wasn't on our list because the company had not reported road spreading after the moratorium. What we found in the so-called determination reports was alarming. Not one driller came close to doing a proper determination following guidance laid out in 25 PA Code Section 287.8. Some just turned in random lab tests. Others submitted reports filled with extraneous information. When we tried to do our own tracking of the waste, we found the DEP's reporting system to be seriously flawed and missing critically important information. We chronicled all of this in our new brief, The Moratorium Morass. You can read it here, https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/betterpathbriefs. Public health and the environment won't be protected until there's an outright ban on spreading dangerous drilling waste!

Donald Trump's January 2021 coup attempt sought to exploit the outdated Electoral Count Act, the law that governs our elections. The Congressional committee responsible for investigating the events of January 6th is reportedly working on recommendations for legislation reforming the Electoral Count Act right now. It’s essential that the committee introduce strong and clear legislation, and that Congress pass it as soon as possible. We can’t risk another attack on our democracy.  The Select Committee on January 6th should introduce legislation reforming the Electoral Count Act as soon as possible!

Our Teays Valley community is dependent upon the decisions made by our school district. Ohio Covid cases are at an all time high and with new variants like Omicron emerging we need to put efforts into decreasing spread and protecting our kids and the vulnerable among us. Masking at the beginning when winter break is over and school returns is the perfect time to mitigate the surge of Covid cases that we all know and have been warned by experts is going to happen. Reported pediatric Covid-related cases have tripled, vulnerable students are not able to attend in person learning due to the lack of protocol by the district, family members are being infected and hospitalized and children will end up returning to remote learning if school infection rates are not controlled. No Covid protocol in Teays Valley can only lead to what the experts who wrote the letter to the district are warning about; kids getting sick, increased spread, hospitals at capacity and communities suffering. That is NOT helping our children have a "normal" school experience, it is hurting them and everyone around them. Masking is a small effort with an impact. It is the least we should expect from our schools.

Many young people, like me, are impacted by climate change. They believe Biden is not doing enough to address the issue, but I blame Republicans since they are the ones stalling Biden's agenda throughout much of last year. We need to urge Republicans to join Democrats in passing a mammoth spending bill that will help save our planet, help our working families, and get our lives back to normal since we are in the middle of a pandemic. Republicans should drop their partisan rhetoric about the bill, and start thinking about the lives of their constituents, including myself and my family, and my community.

1- Prior to July 8th all travelers were required to test in order to bypass a 10-day quarantine. While this did not prevent COVID19 from entering Hawai'i, it did help slow the amount of cases entering the state. We need to bring back required travel testing for both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers NOW. Most travelers arriving are not tested and while vaccinated people may have less severe disease it is now obvious that they could very likely be carriers. 2- Government officials have touted “personal responsibility” as the way to contain the spread of COVID, but they have not provided our community with the tools and information necessary to protect ourselves in the best way possible. One of the best mitigation measures and self-protection tools is the use of a high quality mask. We are asking the counties and the state to provide a supply of high quality masks (N95, KN95, KF94) to students and staff at every public school, and to emphasize the importance of their use. 3- Many members of our community have health concerns and need to have access to the highest level of protection. For many people, catching COVID poses a significant risk of death or permanent disability to themselves or a household member. We ask that the state and county governments adopt policies of encouraging teleworking whenever feasible, and encourage private employers to do so as well. We also ask the Board of Education to adopt a policy that no parent will be harassed, penalized or punished if they feel they need to keep their child home to reduce the risk that the child will catch COVID and bring it home to their household.

The Solution It is the community through its collective vote that is in the best position to decide whether a particular judicial candidate understands the feel, tastes, smell, touch and pulse of the community. This is of particular concern to communities of color that have for far too long, been and continue to a great extent to be marginalized by a judiciary that has been ignorant and insensitive to communities of color. It is only recently that with demographic changes in New York City in particular, that Black and Latino communities have exercised their vote to elect a qualified judiciary more reflective of the community’s demographic make-up. It has been only through their vote, that communities of color have been able to diversify the judiciary to the extent that is has begun to increase to a certain extent, public confidence in the judiciary and the court system as a whole. Indeed, Judges with diverse backgrounds offer unique perspectives and viewpoints that would serve to provide decision-making power to formerly disenfranchised populations and equal justice for all. As a result, BILL NUMBER: S4379 has been introduced and passed by the NYS legislature and awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. TITLE OF BILL An act to amend the judiciary law, in relation to making technical changes to provisions providing for certification for service as a retired judge of the court of appeals or a retired justice of the supreme court. PURPOSE To make certification of retired Court of Appeals Judges and Supreme Court Justices who otherwise meet the statutory criteria for certification automatic, rather than discretionary.

It's now or never! Our democratic system is under attack. A small minority of American voters are standing in the way of the majority will, by using such tactics as gerrymandering, voting suppression, and now threats to change the way our votes are counted in the states and the electoral college. We must stop this now, before it's too late.

As of December 31, Mercer County had 1,199 new positive cases (NYT), with our highest total thus far of weekly cases, 125, happening December 22-28 (Princeton Gov't). This number has increased exponentially from only a few weeks ago, due to the Omicron variant, unsafe vacations, and cold weather's negative effect on immune systems (Harvard). Over one-third of inpatient beds at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital are used by confirmed or suspected COVID patients (Patch). The state total of new student cases is at 7,716 (NJ Gov't). Testing at local centers has been overwhelmed by the number of Princetonians who are exposed to the virus. Forcing us to decide between skipping school or exposing ourselves to COVID is something the district should not pose to us. As students, we should feel comfortable in our learning environment, rather than worrying about a virus threatening our livelihood.

We need to address generational curses and Women's Reentry, Child Mental Health, State and Local Police Conduct, Prosecutorial Conduct and Taxation without Representation for Ex-Offenders. While there has been some improvement, more needs to be done today!! Join setuptofail.org in our quest for Justice and Responsibility.